Data Storage Market Decline Brings Opportunities

EMC continues to lead IBM, Dell and HP in the external disk storage systems market, but worldwide revenue declined by 18.7% from the prior year's second quarter, according to the research firm IDC. eWeek.com broke down the storage sales by revenue percentage, with EMC grabbing 21.5% of the market, IBM had 14.9% and HP came in third with 11.4% of the market share. Dell and NetApp finished in a tie with under 10% of the market share each.

Here's an interesting quote:

"Liz Conner, an IDC research analyst in storage systems, said while the enterprise storage systems market continue to feel the impact of current economic conditions, posting its third straight year-over-year decline, certain "sweet spots" in the market continue to thrive. 'iSCSI SAN and FC SAN both showed strong year-over-year growth of 57.2 percent and 66.8 percent, respectively, in the entry level price bands ($0K-$14.99K) as customers continue to demand enterprise level network storage at a more economically friendly price point,' she noted."

For government technology leaders, this is a great time to take a look at where you stand regarding your overall data storage situation. New technologies that use data deduplication can offer substantial benefit to your enterprise storage strategy. Each of the named vendors are rolling out new products and services that can help reduce cost. New products and pricing can be very attractive.

In Michigan, we are looking at our overall data storage strategy and how we can move towards a new government cloud. We are virtualizing our servers, but also reducing the number of storage platforms with the use of data deduplication. We expect to save significant dollars over the coming year by taking a fresh look at our overall architecture and storage savings opportunities.

During his distinguished career, he has served global organizations in the public and private sectors in a variety of executive leadership capacities, receiving numerous national awards including: CSO of the Year, Public Official of the Year and Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leader.
Lohrmann led Michigan government’s cybersecurity and technology infrastructure teams from May 2002 to August 2014, including enterprisewide Chief Security Officer (CSO), Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) roles in Michigan.

He currently serves as the Chief Security Officer (CSO) and Chief Strategist for Security Mentor Inc. He is leading the development and implementation of Security Mentor’s industry-leading cyber training, consulting and workshops for end users, managers and executives in the public and private sectors. He has advised senior leaders at the White House, National Governors Association (NGA), National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO), U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), federal, state and local government agencies, Fortune 500 companies, small businesses and nonprofit institutions.

He has more than 30 years of experience in the computer industry, beginning his career with the National Security Agency. He worked for three years in England as a senior network engineer for Lockheed Martin (formerly Loral Aerospace) and for four years as a technical director for ManTech International in a US/UK military facility.

Lohrmann is the author of two books: Virtual Integrity: Faithfully Navigating the Brave New Web and BYOD for You: The Guide to Bring Your Own Device to Work. He has been a keynote speaker at global security and technology conferences from South Africa to Dubai and from Washington, D.C., to Moscow.

He holds a master's degree in computer science (CS) from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and a bachelor's degree in CS from Valparaiso University in Indiana.

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Dan Lohrmann

Building effective virtual government requires new ideas, innovative thinking and hard work. From cybersecurity to cloud computing to mobile devices, Dan discusses what’s hot and what works in the world of gov tech.